Lowlands Farm

It's a term not commonly heard, it's agroforestry. The word means to intentionally combine agriculture and forestry to create integrated and sustainable land-use systems. Agroforestry takes advantage of the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock. It's also defined as:

“Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or animals on the same land management unit. The integration can be either in a spatial mixture or in a temporal sequence. There are normally both ecological and economic interactions between woody and non-woody components in agroforestry”. -World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) 1993″

How is agroforestry used? In many ways, they include:

1.    Alley Cropping – This is a form of cropping applied by farmers to combat soil erosion. This helps increase the diversity of farmland as a means for crop diversification. In this practice, crops are planted in strips in the alleys formed between rows of trees or shrubs.  With this type of planting, crops are given shade in hot, dry environments, thus reducing water loss. This also helps retain soil moisture and provides a wildlife habitat. The trees used in this system can produce fruit, fuelwood, fodder or trimmings that can be converted into mulch. Fine hardwoods such as walnut, oak, ash and pecan are favored species in alley cropping systems, which can give a potentially high-value in lumber.
2.    Forest Farming – This is also known as ‘shade systems’. This system integrates the cultivation of both timber and non-timber forest products in a forest setting. With forest farming, the farmer cultivates high value specialty crops under the protection of a forest canopy. These crops include ginseng, shiitake mushrooms, decorative ferns that are sold for medicinal, culinary and ornamental use.
3.    Riparian Buffer and Integrated Riparian Management – Riparian forest buffers are natural or re-established streamside forests made up of tree, shrub and grass plantings. These plantings are placed along lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands in order to enhance and protect aquatic and riparian resources as well as generate income from timber and non-timber forest products.  Plantings also buffer non-point source pollution of waterways from adjacent lands and reduce bank erosion.
4.    SilvoPasture – Silvopasture combines trees with forage and livestock production. Trees are managed for high-value sawlogs and shade for livestock and forage. Conifers or hardwoods for timber or Christmas trees are often planted. Some nut and fruit orchards may also be grazed.
5.    Windbreaks – Planting trees in a linear fashion helps enhance crop production, protect people and livestock while benefiting soil. Field windbreaks protect wind-sensitive crops and control erosion, and increase bee pollination and pesticide effectiveness. Livestock windbreaks help reduce animal stress and mortality, reduce feed consumption, and help reduce visual impacts and odors. Living snowfences keep roads clean of drifting snow and increase driving safety. They can also spread snow evenly across a field, increasing spring soil moisture.

Agroforesty is also used to keep down dust, odors, reduce noise, provide green space or visual aesthetics, enhance wildlife habitat and offers carbon sequestration.

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gregchapman -
About the Author:

Greg Chapman of Greg Chapman Motors is a knowledgeable and leading provider of used cars, trucks, and SUV’s. Since 1959, Chapman motors has supplied reliable used cars in Austin and the surrounding area and is known as one of the http://www.gregchapmanmotors.com.

It’s official! It’s peach season in Georgia, time to enjoy some of the most amazingly delicious fruit on the planet earth. Many of us have favorite summer memories of piling into the family car and heading to the peach orchard for the afternoon. Imagine plucking that first ripe peach of the year from the bin at a roadside stand and biting into the soft succulent flesh, so delicious!

Plus it's always a pleasure to get the chance to stuff your-self with delicious fresh peach ice cream on those hot Georgia summer days. Of course who could forget the peach shortcake? So sweet and good with a side of… well… even MORE peach ice cream, why not?

This year peach farms are reporting some of the ideal tasting peaches they have ever had, and certainly the ideal crop in years. The chill hours needed to make peaches grow to their ideal flavor and sizes were absolutely plentiful and ideal for the crop. Spring this year has also been mild, bringing just the right amount of nourishing rain without the damaging hail or late season freezing issues of last year.

That being said we owe it to ourselves to indulge in peaches during their summer prime in as many ways as we possibly can. Early peach varieties usually ripen in mid to late May, and the last of the peaches usually ripen around late August. Fans of the peach, like me, are probably as happy and excited about the fantastic start to the peach season as the growers are.

With so many great ways to enjoy the Georgia peach and such a plentiful crop there are certain to be great bargains this year. Many families plan trips just to go and pick up some fresh peaches. While that is one of the most immersible and fun ways to do it, it could be impossible for those far from Georgia, or for those of us on a budget due to the recession, but fret not peach lovers I have the solution!

Peach growers make it easy to order fresh peaches online and to have them shipped almost anywhere. In addition to freshly picked peaches, many companies offer peach jams, peach shortcake, pies and other ready-to-eat goodies. Plus if you need ideas for what to do with all your delicious peaches you'll often find family recipes from the grower’s families themselves on the company website.

We love family-run farms that have met the food safety standards as well as the Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) guidelines set-forth by the USDA and the FDA. Those farms that also met the audit standards established under the Georgia GP Food Safety Programs can be considered especially safe. Only three farms in Georgia have earned this special designation and the only one peach and pecan farm. With great hometown people, safe products, and amazingly delectable peach fruit, lets eat!

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Terry Gray -
About the Author:

Victoria Gates is a proud supporter of small American businesses such as the 5-Generation family run Pearson Farm and has met the audit standards established under the Georgia GP Food Safety Program. You can find out more about their operations and location by visiting www.pearsonfarm.com on the web.

From day to day large number of people decides to stop using meat in their meals. There are countless and different reasons for doing that. People stop eating meat because they think that is better for their own health, some of them feel sorry for the animals, some think that could help ending the world hunger… there are so many reasons that are so hard to think off for someone that isn't a vegetarian. PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is the largest animal rights group in the world. People that work there are trying to develop the people’s conscience when it comes about the animals. They are trying to convince the public that animals have their right to be treated equal as every other living soul on the earth.  

According to PETA, these are some of the main reasons why should people leave meat off of their dishes.

•    We live with our pets and we take care of them like they're members of our family. Maybe we're treating dogs and cats as our friends, but the truth is that farmed animals are every bit as intelligent and capable of feeling pain as the dogs and cats. The people from PETA put the accent on the value of their lives. They look at them as individuals that also solve problems, experience fear and pain… Only in America more that 16 billion animals are killed every year for food. These animals have been abused, genetically manipulated, put on drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transported through all weather extremes, and at the end, killed on a terrible ways, like they're protagonist in some shooting games.

•    The vegetarians are defending the thesis that vegan foods provide all the nutrients that people need for their healthy living and there is no need to eat meet. Besides all the healthy ingredients in the vegan food, there is no saturated fat in them, any cholesterol or contaminants that are found in meat, eggs, and dairy products. These guarantees protection from heart disease, diabetes, obesity, strokes, and several types of cancer. The immune systems are stronger and as they say, on average, vegetarians live 10 years longer than meat-eaters.

•    The members of PETA also pay attention to the dangerous meat-processing machines and they claim that not only the animals have been abused in this process. The number of workers that endure crippling injuries and the ones that have even lost their limbs—or their lives is very big.

•    PETA claims that factory farms pollute the environment for many miles around them. People who live and work nearby is fighting with chronic sickness, brain damage, poisoned waterways, elevated cancer rates and even death plague.

•    According to PETA raising animals for food is extremely inefficient.  Animals eat a lot but only a fraction of the calories are returned in the form of edible flesh. This whole process steals the food from the hungry people in the world and if stops the process of intensively breeding farmed animals and grew crops to feed humans instead, we could easily feed every human on the planet with healthy vegetarian foods.

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Leyla Useini -
About the Author:

I'm born and raised in Bitola, Macedonia. I study languages and I write about things that are of great interest to me and my peers.